(July 15, 2010) It is tempting to suggest that a country’s ability to prepare for disasters is a matter of money. But although wealth certainly matters, politics are more important.
Evidence for surface loading as trigger mechanism of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
(July 14, 2010) Abstract: Two and a half years prior to China’s M7.9 Wenchuan earthquake of May 2008, at least 300 million metric tons of water accumulated with additional seasonal water level changes in the Minjiang River Valley at the eastern margin of the Longmen Shan. This article shows that static surface loading in the valley induced Coulomb failure stresses on the nearby Beichuan thrust fault system at <17km depth.
9,000 people evacuated from northwest China city near risky reservoir
(July 11, 2010) More than 9,000 people have been evacuated Sunday from Golmud City in northwest China’s Qinghai Province as water level continued to rise in a nearby risky reservoir, the municipal authorities said.
House of cards: China’s development rush may be behind slew of geological disasters, says scientist
(July 9, 2010) The potential environmental fallout from China’s super-heated development may be putting lives at risk, says a Chinese geologist in an exclusive report for Probe International.
Chinese dam played role in deadly landslide
(July 9, 2010) An exclusive report for Probe International from Fan Xiao, chief engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, detailing the potential role a nearby dam played in a deadly landslide in China’s southwest Guizhou Province.
To little surprise, environmental programs at Three Gorges are falling short
(July 5, 2010) As the environmental problems continue to plague the massive Three Gorges dam, officials are falling way behind on programs to contain the pollution caused by its construction. Less than a fifth of the “water environment” programs laid out in a ten year plan in 2001 have been completed, while all nine of the projects to control pollution from ships have not begun, according to Vice-Minister of Environmental Protection Zhang Lijun.
Lessons from controversy (2)
(June 12, 2010) In the conclusion of their two-part analysis of the Clean Development Mechanism, He Gang and Richard Morse reject assertions that China has manipulated tariffs to secure funding and call for reform.
Lessons from controversy (1)
(June 12, 2010) The United Nations’ decision to deny a clutch of Chinese wind farms Clean Development Mechanism status has exposed structural failures in this carbon-cutting device, argue He Gang and Richard Morse.
Responding to Graeme Kelleher
(June 22, 2010) In his interview with chinadialogue’s editor, Isabel Hilton (In defence of dams, May 27), engineer and water-resource expert Graeme Kelleher says critics of China’s Three Gorges dam should accept the “facts” that the dam protects the environment by reducing coal burning and “saves thousands of Chinese people from being drowned in the floods of the Yangtze River every year.”
Chinese state media blames the gods for deadly landslide: Chinese geologist says dam construction was the likely trigger
(June 20, 2010) Fan Xiao, Chief engineer of the Regional Geology Investigation Team of the Sichuan Geology and Mineral Bureau, says dams were the real trigger of a massive landslide in Kangding County in China’s southwestern Sichuan province.
Expert—Hydropower Plant May Have Triggered Deadly Landslide in Sichuan, China
(June 18, 2010) Geologist Fan Xiao says recent landslides in China’s southwestern Sichuan province may have been caused by nearby dams.
Giant dams mess with global sea level rise
(June 18, 2010) Michael Reilly, writing in Discovery News, says massive dams are altering the global sea level.
Sudden sinkhole outbreak raises fears in China
(June 17, 2010) China is suffering from a sudden rise in sinkholes, writes Li Hui in The Epoch Times.
Huang Wanli’s predictions for the Three Gorges come to pass
(June 12, 2010) Huang Wanli, renowned hydraulics engineer and Tsinghua University lecturer, first voiced his opposition to the large-scale damming of rivers by opposing the construction of the Sanmenxia dam in 1957. In the 1980s he became a vocal opponent of the Three Gorges project and contributed to Yangtze! Yangtze!, the important critique of the dam compiled by China’s celebrated investigative journalist, Dai Qing. Now, as the Three Gorges dam is beset by monumental operational problems, Huang Wanli’s prescient analysis helps explain why it was a mistake to build the biggest dam in the world. Read his 1993 interview with Dai Qing.
Migrants “happy” to be resettled says China’s state-run media
(June 11, 2010) The more than 60-thousand Chinese citizens who will be pushed off of their land to make way for a massive South-North Water Diversion project are, according to one government official, ‘eager to move.’
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
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Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
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